An Old Doll
by SuprSingr
Summary: Helga talks about an old doll she used to have when she was a little girl.


**An Old Doll**

**One-Shot**

"I had a doll once.

A beautiful doll, I really loved her. I'd have probably just thrown her away with the rest of my dolls when I got older, though, truth be told, except I'd had her since I was a baby. She was my first toy, one that my dad had gotten for me, surprisingly. I still have her somewhere, though God knows where now. Somewhere hiding, probably, just waiting for that one day when I'm shifting around through a bunch of old boxes and find her again and suddenly get all nostalgic and crap. Though that day certainly isn't TODAY.

See, one of my favorite aspects of having that doll was so that I could dress her up in a bunch of stupid girly outfits. She was just a rag doll, with two old blue beads for eyes and a head full of yellow yarn hair—nothing special, and she had clothes already dyed into her little rag body, but I liked to play dress-up as a kid. What little girl didn't?

I didn't have a lot of clothes to dress her up in back then, though. Just a few outfits I'd managed to con my mom into buying me when I was three or something. She must've seen how much I liked them, because it became a trend then. Every Christmas I'd get a new outfit for her then. About the fourth Christmas of this trend, though, I completely hit the jackpot—got an entire BOX full of outfits for her. Dresses, shirts, pants—the WHOLE shebang! I must've gone through every outfit in that box at least twice, but one day while going through them I found one outfit that I _adored_. It was a blue dress, with white lace all around the collar and rim, a pink ribbon tied around the waist, puffy sleeves and all. And just to put the cherry on top of the sundae, it had a little pink bow right at the neck of it between the lace collar. Eh, pretty simple and not very matchy, I guess, but it really worked on her. The dress was _perfect_.

I kept that dress on her months and months. I never wanted to take it off of her. Miriam even stopped buying me new outfits for her because of it. Figured with how attached I was to that one particular dress that I'd never wanna take it off.

But finally, one day, while looking through the other outfits I had for her in the box, and looking at her sitting across the room with her same old blue and pink dress on, I got bored. Decided it was about time to change her stinking dress already. So I redressed her in some random shirt and skirt I had and threw the dress somewhere in my room.

But I don't know, the outfit just didn't look right on her. So I changed it again. But the next dress I chose didn't seem to fit right. So I changed it again. And again. And again, and again, and again, and, well… You get the picture.

I tried a couple times to find where her old dress went so I could put it back on her, but I couldn't find it. But all the new outfits I dressed her in always seemed to have something wrong with them—they didn't fit right, they didn't match, they looked weird on her… They just weren't doing it for me, or her.

I never did find that dress again…"

"Yeah, but… that was just an old doll. What are you trying to say?"

Helga smiled, perhaps a bit smirkily. "What I'm SAYING is that I lost something really, really good all because I got bored one day. Kinda like with you and your boyfriend…?"

"But… It's different. We're just not working out… It's just, it's the same thing, over and over, and I'm getting sick of it."

"Yeah, sounds familiar."

"He's not a doll dress."

"I know he's not. But he IS like one in this case. You two have had so many great times together, have been with each other for YEARS now. And you're thinking about throwing all that away just because you're getting a little bored? If you're so bored, why not make up some of your own excitement? Spice things up a little, talk to him about it—don't just act on impulse. Otherwise you may wake up one day realizing you've lost something REALLY great. And once that happens, you're never going to get it back."

Amanda flushed a little, was quiet a moment, and then smiled up at her mom a tad abashedly. "I think I see what you mean, Mom… I'm sorry about your doll dress."

Helga gave a short snort and laughed a little, before reaching over to pat her daughter on the back with a smile. "Ah, it's okay, Angel. It was just a stupid toy. But eh, it serves for a good metaphor. I don't want you losing something much more costly over something silly like this." Her eyes softened as she reached over to brush some hair out of her twelve-year-old daughter's face, her smile turning a bit more motherly. "You're still young, you know. You still have plenty of time to kick him to the curb should you choose. But if you do, I'd like it to be for a _good_ reason. That kid really loves you, you know."

Amanda's already slightly flushed face turned bright pink this time, and she couldn't keep the smile off her face. "I-I know… I love him, too. It's just…" she shifted her face away now and looked down, rubbing her hands over, "he wouldn't shut up about his new bike he got for Christmas… _again_. It's practically all he talks about anymore."

Helga snorted a clearer snort this time and rolled her eyes full circle. "Typical guy. Consider yourself flattered that he'll even TALK to you about this stuff. Normally they consider that kind of stuff 'boys only' talk and won't even talk to ANY girl about it. Your dad tried to do that to me once, but I _made_ him talk." She smirked, cracking her knuckles a bit.

Amanda chuckled a little sarcastically, still looking away. "Yeah, well, I don't count myself so lucky. It's gotten boring pretty fast. But I get where you're coming from. Just because we're going through a boring stage doesn't mean I should just break things off just like that. I'll just have to talk to him about it, tell him how I feel." She smiled up at her mom brightly. "You know, I don't think what Dad said about you was right. I think you're great at advice, Mom." She threw her arms around her in a big hug, grinning with her eyes closed.

Helga stiffened, though, her eyes suddenly narrowing. "Wait, your father said what?"

Amanda's eyes popped open. "Uh... nothing?"

**A/N:** 'Tis a ficlet, it would seem... o.O LOL, actually sorta a true story, too. xD I mean, I editted and messed with the old story's variables a lot to make it work, but it's actually kinda an old thing that happened to me when I was a kid. xD And I was kinda just randomly thinking about that, and it struck me that that could be perceived as a pretty dang good metaphor. XD And this happened... I made a boo boo. XD Apologies, I know it's lame. I've got a bunch o' crap in progress that I'll try to post soon, though. :) Granted, it's all lame too, but... Eh, you'll take what you get. *Shrugs* Writer's block has been seriously kicking me in the crapper lately, and plus crud keeps gettin' serious, and on top of it all, it's so hot... D: Freaking Florida, ehhh... :'( But whatever, I'll force my way through it for you guys if you want. :)

Review if you want, I guess, lol.


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